Valentine Museum Focuses On 40 Years Of Racial History

March 13, 1986|By Paul Grant, United Press International

RICHMOND, VA. — Just blocks behind the glittering high-rises that mark a social and economic renaissance in the old Confederate capital, a museum known primarily for its Victorian collections is analyzing the Jim Crow mentality that once tainted the South.

The Valentine Museum embarked on the first-of-its-kind project for Richmond because the issue of race relations still needs to be ventilated, said museum director Frank Jewell.

''This is a pilot project,'' Jewell said as he walked about the one-room gallery. ''We're going to continue to research this.''

Anchoring the exhibit is a 32-foot-by-6-foot glass showcase that documents in chronological order four decades of often rancorous race relations.

A 1953 city directory identifies blacks with a C inside a circle next to their names. At the other end of the case stands the three-piece, pin-striped morning suit worn by L. Douglas Wilder last month when he was inaugurated as lieutenant governor. Wilder was the first black to be elected to statewide office in Virginia.

''There was a major gap in the collection and we wanted to fill it,'' Jewell said of the exhibit, which runs until May 22. ''We needed to deal in the 20th century and more with the people we hadn't dealt with.''

The exhibit also features, in the center of the gallery, two bus back seats.

''The back of the bus may be as important a symbol as anything,'' said Maggie Harm, a co-curator of the exhibit.

Other exhibit items include a restaurant sign that says ''COLORED'' and a restroom door from a filling station that has the words ''LADIES WHITE'' hand- painted in black on peeling white paint. A toilet paper dispenser is attached to the inside of the wooden door.

With a few exceptions, most visitors have appreciated the exhibit at the museum, which is nestled in one of the city's oldest sections just blocks from the State Capitol and the new downtown James Rouse development that has been hailed as a bridge between black and white culture and economics.

''There's been some people who are concerned that this isn't an appropriate topic for the museum,'' Jewell said.

Harm said the museum wanted to shore up its scarce 20th-century and black history collections.

Most of the artifacts are on loan. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the AFL-CIO helped the museum find some artifacts. Others came from individuals, including civil rights lawyer Oliver Hill of Richmond.

''We had a great response from the community, from people who said 'I have this object to donate,' '' Harm said.

The NAACP gave the museum many of the historic photographs on display. Hill donated the photo of his 1948 inauguration as the first black Richmond city councilman.

Hill, 78, said he was elated that the Valentine took on such a project.

''It's been very ultra-conservative up to this time,'' Hill said. ''I'm hoping it'll get the community support that this deserves. If you'd asked me a few years ago if I thought they would, I would say I was surprised they were doing it. Everything moves rather slowly here.''

The exhibit also is displaying 27 snapshots of blacks in family and everyday situations.

In addition to the symbols of segregation, and such stereotypes of blacks as a ''Mammy'' figurine and Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, are items that blacks perceive to be stereotypical of whites. Cowboy boots, for instance.

Recessed in the wall at the end of the gallery is a pair of television sets. Sixteen Richmonders, including Wilder, state Sen. Benjamin Lambert, former Virginia Power President T. Justin Moore and a retired white homemaker recall segregation in a video presentation.

''We boiled down 18 hours of material to 1 1/2 hours,'' said Jennifer Rodda, the exhibit's other co-curator.

Harm said the Valentine has had other black history exhibits, but none that has examined race relations. ''I will say it's the first exhibit in a Richmond museum dealing with race relations,'' Harm said.

The exhibit represents the start of a long-term project to collect, preserve and interpret the past 40 years of race relations in Richmond. The museum is studying Jim Crow and urban slavery, and has applied for grants to fund exhibits on those subjects.